Confirmations of a New Calling
In my first blog post (9.1.23), I shared the details of my new calling from being the Lead Pastor at Grace Church to coaching leaders, writing books and blogs, and speaking at churches and conferences. My experience of having three prophetic words being spoken over me by a pastor I did not know and in a church 4500 miles from home can only be categorized as “Supernatural.” This encounter on Sunday, June 16, 2019, at Holy Trinity Brompton Church (HTB) in London, England was followed by a series of confirmations through circumstances and by people.
My first confirmation came in the days following this divine encounter as my wife and ministry partner of 37 years, Cheryl, and I spent time carefully considering the implications of this ministry transition. Obedience to this new calling would require a dramatic shift in our family schedule and personal finances. Some of this would be very positive and exciting. For the first time in more than 35 years, I’d be able to go to Christmas Eve services with Cheryl and then go and look at Christmas lights in our community. This thought was refreshing for us. As an educator in the Lee County public school system, Cheryl and I would be able to plan activities together during her Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Summer breaks. This, too, was an exciting possibility. But we’d also have to adjust to my office being in our home where I would meet with spiritual leaders mostly via Zoom. Financially, the security of a “you-can-count-on-it” every two-week paycheck was out the door. This brought some anxiety. By the grace of God, we were disciples of Financial Peace University and are debt-free so our concern lowered quite a bit. Many deep talks about these and many other consequences of saying “Yes” to God’s new calling happened following my HTB encounter with the Holy Spirit. When it was all said and done, Cheryl and I felt the “Go ahead” of the Spirit and continued to walk in trusting confidence that God was leading and we were following.
A second confirmation happened seven months after my HTB experience. In January of 2020. My dear friend and President and CEO of TMS Global, a mission’s sending agency, Max Wilkins, had invited me to speak at their Global Gathering in Kyrenia in North Cyprus. It was a high and holy privilege to speak to 300 cross-cultural witnesses and their families. One of the offerings for the attendees was the opportunity to spend time with a Spiritual Director, a spiritual guide who walks alongside a Christian to encourage spiritual growth. I had arranged to have breakfast with a Spiritual Director named Laura who serendipitously was from Florida. I spent a good portion of that morning meal crying into my coffee as Laura and I chatted. The Spirit of God was stirring in me a deep need for a walk alongside a spiritual friend for this season of my life. Laura and I agreed to meet monthly and “see how it goes.” It went splendidly. Our monthly one-and-a-half hour Zoom meetings were filled with rich conversation and transcendent prayers. Laura helped me discern that the next four years were about walking the road of diminishing. I was transitioning from spiritual leader to spiritual sage, from “Pastor” to “Papi” and this would require new spiritual muscles. Practically, it would mean learning the kenosis (or self-emptying) way of Jesus as described in Philippians 2:5-11 and this would require a guide. Laura was and continues to be this sacred companion in this lifelong journey of descent.
Less than two months later, I would find myself sitting on the front porch of the registration building at St. Simon’s Island in Georgia with three amazing young pastors; Larry Frank, Sarah Wanck, and Adam Penn. They were attending “The Order of the Flame” hosted by Dr. Kim Reisman and World Methodist Evangelism where I was speaking. That afternoon, these three peppered me with rich and robust questions about being a spiritual leader who leads a local church. As we chatted, my internal spiritual temperature was rising. Their inquiry matched the desperate need for younger and newer leaders to be mentored and my new calling to walk this sacred path with them. That afternoon on the front porch at St. Simon’s Island, I had a preview and a confirmation of my new calling.
As we were enjoying the beauty of the South Georgia coastline, news of COVID-19’s spread was amping up. After the mid-March shutdown, I was contacted by two young leaders, Dr. Michael Beck and Dr. Roz Picardo about co-leading a Doctor of Ministry cohort at United Theological Seminary. They were under the assumption that I had a doctoral degree which I did not. After some negotiation, it was determined that I would be an Assistant to Michael for the cohort while at the same time, working on my doctoral program with the rest of the students. The makeup of the cohort was primarily local church pastors who were half my age. For three glorious years, we worked side-by-side on our unique projects. We journeyed through ministry transitions, personal tragedies, and church challenges. Our little cohort became a family of sisters and brothers in Christ. My doctoral project was more an “opus” of my nearly forty years of local church ministry. I entitled it “Congregational Vitality: The Church’s Journey from Heroic Solo Leadership to Generative Team Leadership.” Over three years, I addressed the impulse toward heroic solo leadership in the local church resulting in a lack of sustainability and vitality for the church. I argued that the art of cultivating generative team leadership promotes local church sustainability and vitality. My academic pilgrimage would walk me through the biblical narrative of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law confronting the overworked heroic solo leader and suggesting a distributed leadership model. I would journey through the early Methodist movement with John Wesley and his empowering of the whole Body of Christ to join Jesus in his mission. Theologically, I voyaged with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the “perichoresis,” or the sacred dance of the Trinity. I learned that our Triune God invites the Bride of Christ into the sacred melody of life in God for the sake of others. My expedition led me to the brilliant work of Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky. They champion “adaptive leadership theory.” It argues that “Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive.”[1] Following a six-week project to validate my findings, my DMin project was done. Both my work and the little Kingdom community of fellow doctoral pilgrims over three years was a major confirmation of my new calling. United Theological Seminary gave me an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in January of this year and in May of this year, I earned my Doctor of Ministry degree. United has invited me to teach at both the Master’s and Doctoral levels which becomes another place and space for investing in younger and newer spiritual leaders.
To test the waters of my new calling, I began coaching a handful of pastors in the late summer of 2022. For 17 years, Craig Robertson, one of the founders of Spiritual Leadership, Inc. has been my coach. I have been (and continue to be) on the “client” side of this relationship. In the summer of 2022, I was switching seats to become the “coach.” Tentatively, I “stepped out of the boat” and quickly learned that my entire life, good, bad, and ugly, had prepared me for this holy work of walk-alongside mentoring. There are new muscles I am learning to exercise to this very moment. Currently, I have 20 coaching relationships that I believe are mutually beneficial.
I am one month into living fully in this new calling. Daily, God confirms that my “Yes” to him in the summer of 2019 was indeed his calling for my life. So, the journey continues.
Because of Jesus,
Jorge
October 1, 2023
[1] Ronald A Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Martin Linsky. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press, 2009) 14.
EXTRA:
Below is an entry from my daily journal that I wrote after I wrote this blog. I use the SOAP (scripture, observation, application, prayer) method that was taught to me by Dr. Wayne Cordeiro at New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii. His book, The Divine Mentor is a fantastic book on journaling as a tool to hear from the Holy Spirit.
A Leaping in My Soul
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41 (NIV)
Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, may be the first patron saints of fidelity to God for the Jesus movement. Luke 1:6 (NIV) describes their godly character: Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. In spite of the cultural judgment for being childless, they remained faithful to God and his ways. After a visit from the Angel Gabriel announcing that Elizabeth was pregnant, he became mute and she went into seclusion. During the beginning of her third trimester, Mary got pregnant and Elizabeth went to see her. This is where verse 41 picks up. Upon Mary’s welcoming words, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt. Luke simply records the pentecostal moment. Elizabeth was “filled with Holy Spirit.” An in utero gymnastic move by baby John stirred the Spirit of God in his momma.
This weekend, I put the finishing touches on my second blog post. I wrote on the confirmations of my new calling to coach, write, and speak. Each of these confirmations along the four year journey from calling to consummation were much like baby John tumbling in his mother’s womb. They led to Spirit-inspired affirmations that I was being obedient to the Lord. Something new was being birthed in and through me. I could not see it, but it was coming. My gestation period was not nine months but four years! God needed overtime to work in me. Self-differentiation from the people and place I had loved for 27 years would be slow, Spirit work. Growing a heart of diminishing would require Abba’s patient cultivation. Like a child growing in a mother’s womb, my new calling needed time to incubate. This kind of maturation can not be rushed. Along the way, each stirring in me through the circumstances of my life and the people God put in my path served as my pentecostal encounter. They emboldened me to trust God for my future.
Thank you God for the confirmations of my new calling that have been leaping in my soul leading to Holy Spirit affirmations. Amen.
